We propose that symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases with crystalline symmetry are formulated by equivariant generalized homologies $h^G_n(X)$ over a real space manifold $X$ with $G$ a crystalline symmetry group. The Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence unifies various notions in crystalline SPT phases such as the layer construction, higher-order SPT phases and Lieb-Schultz-Mattis type theorems. Our formulation is applicable to interacting systems with onsite and crystalline symmetries as well as free fermions.
We study the Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence (AHSS) for equivariant K-theory in the context of band theory. Various notions in the band theory such as irreducible representations at high-symmetric points, the compatibility relation, topological gapless and singular points naturally fits into the AHSS. As an application of the AHSS, we get the complete list of topological invariants for 230 space groups without time-reversal or particle-hole invariance. We find that a lot of torsion topological invariants appear even for symmorphic space groups.
Topological phenomena are commonly studied in phases of matter which are separated from a trivial phase by an unavoidable quantum phase transition. This can be overly restrictive, leaving out scenarios of practical relevance -- similar to the distinction between liquid water and vapor. Indeed, we show that topological phenomena can be stable over a large part of parameter space even when the bulk is strictly speaking in a trivial phase of matter. In particular, we focus on symmetry-protected topological phases which can be trivialized by extending the symmetry group. The topological Haldane phase in spin chains serves as a paradigmatic example where the $SO(3)$ symmetry is extended to $SU(2)$ by tuning away from the Mott limit. Although the Haldane phase is then adiabatically connected to a product state, we show that characteristic phenomena -- edge modes, entanglement degeneracies and bulk phase transitions -- remain parametrically stable. This stability is due to a separation of energy scales, characterized by quantized invariants which are well-defined when a subgroup of the symmetry only acts on high-energy degrees of freedom. The low-energy symmetry group is a quotient group whose emergent anomalies stabilize edge modes and unnecessary criticality, which can occur in any dimension.
We review the dimensional reduction procedure in the group cohomology classification of bosonic SPT phases with finite abelian unitary symmetry group. We then extend this to include general reductions of arbitrary dimensions and also extend the procedure to fermionic SPT phases described by the Gu-Wen super-cohomology model. We then show that we can define topological invariants as partition functions on certain closed orientable/spin manifolds equipped with a flat connection. The invariants are able to distinguish all phases described within the respective models. Finally, we establish a connection to invariants obtained from braiding statistics of the corresponding gauged theories.
In this note, we use Curtiss algorithm and the Lambda algebra to compute the algebraic Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence of the suspension spectrum of $mathbb{R}P^infty$ with the aid of a computer, which gives us its Adams $E_2$-page in the range of $t<72$. We also compute the transfer map on the Adams $E_2$-pages. These data are used in our computations of the stable homotopy groups of $mathbb{R}P^infty$ in [6] and of the stable homotopy groups of spheres in [7].
The classification and lattice model construction of symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases in interacting fermion systems are very interesting but challenging. In this paper, we give a systematic fixed point wave function construction of fermionic SPT (FSPT) states for generic fermionic symmetry group $G_f=mathbb{Z}_2^f times_{omega_2} G_b$ which is a central extension of bosonic symmetry group $G_b$ (may contain time reversal symmetry) by the fermion parity symmetry group $mathbb{Z}_2^f = {1,P_f}$. Our construction is based on the concept of equivalence class of finite depth fermionic symmetric local unitary (FSLU) transformations and decorating symmetry domain wall picture, subjected to certain obstructions. We will also discuss the systematical construction and classification of boundary anomalous SPT (ASPT) states which leads to a trivialization of the corresponding bulk FSPT states. Thus, we conjecture that the obstruction-free and trivialization-free constructions naturally lead to a classification of FSPT phases. Each fixed-point wave function admits an exactly solvable commuting-projector Hamiltonian. We believe that our classification scheme can be generalized to point/space group symmetry as well as continuum Lie group symmetry.